Since Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, the team has made huge strides in making the offensive line more effective, in hopes of it becoming dominant.
Last year, the team used its first-round pick, No. 5 overall, to select Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt. This offseason, they signed Mekhi Becton, a former first-round pick who just helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl, in free agency.
But Harbaugh may not be satisfied. There are still questions at center and one of the guard spots, where former first-round pick Zion Johnson is entering a make-or-break season. But maybe they don’t even want to wait to see how that transpires. Maybe they want to make one more splash move before the season kicks off. Should that be the case, Nate Gosney of Last Words on Sports feels the team should approach the rebuilding Cleveland Browns and inquire about either Wyatt Teller or Joe Bitonio.
The Browns don’t have the best roster in the league and it seems they have been “rebuilding” for at least two decades, but Teller and Bitonio are two of the better interior linemen in the league.
Here were Gosney’s thoughts on a potential deal:
“The main targets for the Chargers should be Wyatt Teller and Joel Bitonio. Both of whom are in their 30s, with Teller being 30 and Bitonio being 33, respectively. Couple that with their contracts both expiring at the end of 2025, this allows them to be perfect trade candidates as the trading team could easily not re-sign them if the trade backfired.
But how would this make sense for the Browns? Losing a starting offensive lineman, whether it is Teller or Bitonio, both of whom have made All-Pro teams and recently made Pro Bowls in 2023 (Teller) and 2024 (Bitonio) is always a massive hole to fix.
Luckily, the Browns have prepared for this by drafting Zak Zinter in the third round in 2024, who was coming off a broken tibia and fibula but is now healthy and ready to compete. Furthermore, the Browns also confusingly signed Teven Jenkins, who is an above-average, talented, young offensive lineman who has played both tackle and guard, but his ball has undoubtedly been at guard.
So with both of those options available, trading one of Bitonio or Teller should be a fairly reasonable idea for the Browns”.
Gosney assesses that the Chargers could Teller and a 2026 seventh-round pick in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 seventh-round choice. He sees a potential deal for Bitonio being just as cheap, as the Chargers give up just a sixth-round choice in 2026 for him.
It would be incredible if the Chargers could make one of these deals happen, as both Teller and Bitonio are an upgrade over Johnson, but would the Browns let them go that easily? For a team with as many questions at the quarterback spot as the Browns have, they likely don’t want to soften the offensive line too drastically.
It would be worth a call to see if the Browns would accept a trade for either player, but it’s hard to see a deal coming to fruition.
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